I’m not sure I understand the need/demand for sharing the latest inanity someone happens to “like”.
I have a profile and I occasionally get contacted by recruiters, but since I’m mostly retired, I ignore that.
What I find annoying are the messages saying “Congratulate <person> on his 5th work anniversary at <job>” Really?
And what’s the deal with endorsements? I have an old friend (from high school days) who’s a city health inspector. Why would having her endorse me as an Aero Engineer have any value? We’ve never worked together and she has no idea what I do, nor do I know diddly about what she does. I’ve also been endorsed by people I’ve only “met” electronically. It seems pretty worthless to me, but then I rarely even look at my account. It’s pretty sparse anyway.
I tried it once. Kept my account for a while, during the time I was both employed and unemployed and job-hunting. It solved exactly zero problems in either case and was useful for absolutely nothing. So I deleted it. I certainly don’t miss it, and I wonder why it still even exists. I can’t imagine what users are getting out of that “service”.
It’s so funny this thread is here because I’ve been balls deep in Linkedin all day and it suuuuuuuuuuucks.
I’m trying to use it as a tool for my company because it’s about the only “social media” that makes sense for us to put any REAL effort towards and it’s been the biggest mistake of my life.
Linkedin is the least user-friendly platform ever. It’s been the most frustrating tool I’ve ever had to use marketing-wise.
My memory of previous Dope threads on LinkedIn is that it’s important in some specific fields (engineering and law have been mentioned), but far less important in others.
I am also a “retired old guy.” IMHO, for people like us it has little value unless you’re looking for consulting gigs or other freelance work.
I think the “endorsements” feature drastically weakens LinkedIn’s credibility. It’s a joke, and everyone knows it. Endorsements from people I barely know, for skills they don’t know I have? Please.
LinkedIn is for people who crave the social media feedback loop in a more professional setting.
It does work sometimes - I was headhunted into my current job by a recruiter who saw my profile on LinkedIn, probably when searching for a specific skill set.
A lot of recruiters, not all of whom are bottom-feeders, use it, sometimes exclusively. I’ve received a number of good inquiries via LinkedIn, and it’s a far better system than the old one of mailing out resumes blindly. Yes, it’s a job-hunting site, and no, you won’t think it’s useful unless you are willing to or need to make a career move; then you may be grateful for it. Plus, it’s a convenient way to keep track of former colleagues, and keep in touch from time to time.
As a sales guy, linked in is GREAT! Where else can you spend 30 seconds and find out tons of great background on your target? Where they went to University, maybe where they grew up, the different companies they worked for, current job and title (usually inflated in a grandiose fashion), what they look like, etc. It is awesome to go into a business meeting with this type of background with a pitiful amount of effort to dig out.
It’s important to be aware that, depending on their LinkedIn subscription level, your mark may get notified that somebody viewed their profile last month, or that a person in Sales at ChinaGuy’s Employer, LLC viewed their profile last week, or that China Guy came to see their profile last Thursday.
However, if a user has their own profile set to private, even a premium user won’t see the name of who visited their profile.
So I might see John Doe visited my profile but if John Doe has their own profile set to private I’d see “a LinkedIn user visited my profile” or “someone from Happy Sales Company visited my profile”, even as a premium member.
I have used it to check out applicants. That’s helpful, as well as Googling the people, especially when they’re coming in to interview.
And a couple of days ago a recruiter reached out to me about a job opportunity with a small company that doesn’t even have a website (which I think is pretty rare). With some searching, the new, young company makes a medical device that dovetails well with my experience. The recruiter used my profile to find the match, and she messaged me but I didn’t see that because I don’t usually go there. She finally sent email. Thank goodness she did — I’m intrigued and excited about this job! I’ve applied.
This has kicked off my job searching (I’d been doing some consulting and P/T work). I guess I needed this to jump start things, and I’ll be using LinkedIn a lot in the coming weeks in my search.
Makes no sense to have an an account if you work in a nonprofessional setting.
I sometimes cringe at the use of ‘non-professional’. But I think I know what you meant, so…
It depends. It can help. As a general rule it’s often better to present oneself as more professional, than less. For someone in their 20s, 30s, or 40s, their job path may take an unplanned turn where, if the person had maintained their profile over the years, a recruiter could spot their experience and reach out with a new job opportunity, a new and different position not previously thought of.
Or if the person had built up their contacts over the years, and ideally gotten some recommendations, that network can help the person find future jobs. Those contacts, over the years, move on to different companies and jobs. And the person stays connected with that ever-expanding sphere. Networking is often a good way to find the next job.
It’s a small investment in time that can pay big dividends in the future. And for these purposes, grooming a LinkedIn profile is better than building up a social network on Facebook, e.g. All it takes is updating LinkedIn once or twice a year, reaching out to coworkers and updating job history. Over the years, it builds up and can become a substantial history and profile.
Like I said, it depends, but it’s a very small time investment and one never knows what the future holds.
Forgive me for saying this, but a good majority of my coworkers are not computer-savvy except to post family photos on Facebook, if even that. I doubt very much the younger crowd uses LinkedIn – considering they no longer use Facebook “because my mom’s on it” they no doubt don’t use LinkedIn “because my dad’s on it”. They also tend to stay put because they’re petrified they won’t be hired anywhere else.
To me, it seems more of a business-related networking site. I would feel funny friending, say, my boss’s boss on there. I’m not upper management. I hasten to add that there are some professions which either aren’t represented there or who have very little representation there. I’d fall in one of those categories.
In my field all that is word-of-mouth because people have always tended to jump from one employer to another at the drop of a hat. Nowadays not so much. They either become vested or they leave the field altogether.
I’ve been told to ignore my profession completely an do a profile highlighting all my skills which aren’t used OTJ. I have nothing to show for them, though…?
I was speaking to the general case. It’s not for everybody. If it won’t work for you and/or the people you know, that’s fine. Whatever works for you. There is no solution that works well for all.
Regarding the use of LinkedIn, many use it for connecting socially and sharing information that tends to be more social, e.g., a post saying, “I’ll be at CA World 2017!”, and such. Fine for them, but I prefer to keep it strictly business.
Noted and thanks for the head’s up. I’m usually upfront with folks, “hey, noticed on LinkedIn you went to Bumfuck U. What a small world, my second cousin’s friend went there too.”
Now that MSFT owns LinkedIn, a lot of Microsurfs actually put their linkedin profile link along with their email contact details.
When I interview prospective employees, I will give them points if they checked me out on LinkedIn. It just says they are doing their homework…
If you are a professional who relies to any extent on networking for your reputation in the field or if there is a possibility that prospective clients will search for you on the internet, then you had better have a Linked In profile. Or if you have any interest or need for other people to seek you out as an expert available to comment on issues in your field, such as at conferences, meetings, or in the press, then you had better have a Linked In profile.
There are also a lot of employers who make it very easy to apply for jobs using your Linked In profile. You don’t have to bother sending a resume or worrying about what the proper format should be. Linked In’s format serves as the standard.
My sister signed up on LinkedIn for her acupuncture practice and her email account got hacked into . I got an email from sister and opened it and I got a virus in my computer that took forever to get rid of ! Everyone in my sister contact list was getting spam emails with my sister’s name. She had to warn all her patients and friends not to open any emails that said " Hi" or "Greeting " in the subject . The email I opened had “Hi” for the subject which sound safe to open and was from my sister . I won’t open any emails that said it from LinkedIn anymore !
This is working just like you say. I wasn’t expecting to be contacted, but I was by a recruiter who thought I’d be a match for an opening. I applied, and they’re inviting me in to interview after Thanksgiving – this could be a good an intriguing opportunity. All thanks to LinkedIn. I’d been at my last job for close to 20 years, so this is the first time that LinkedIn is factoring into my job search.